January 9 – Pope Adrian VI (born Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens, Dedens or Dedel;[1] Hadrianus in Latin) succeeds Pope Leo X as the 218th pope. The only Dutch pope, he will be the last non-Italian elected for more than 450 years.

Chinese Ming Dynasty records indicate that the War Ministry official He Ru is the first to acquire the Portuguesebreech-loadingculverin, while copies of them are made by two Westernized Chinese at Beijing, Yang San (Pedro Yang) and Dai Ming.